The building blocks of English

Affixes

clad(o)-

A branch or branching.

Greek klados, a branch or shoot.

A set of terms in biology refers to a method of classifying organisms according to physical or genetic characteristics they share with common ancestors; the theory is cladistics, adherence to the theory is cladism, and a cladogram is a diagram of the relationships concerned. A cladode (also known as a cladophyll or phylloclade) is a flattened leaf-like stem that can photosynthesize; a cladoceran is a crustacean, a water-flea, so called because it has a bivalve shell from which the head and antennae branch.